From the current stage, I very much agree with the first point：Underestimating the leap from prototype to production

Building a single functioning prototype is not the same thing as building thousands of production units. Complexity increases at a seemingly exponential rate, so sourcing and logistics become a totally different ball game.

To put things in perspective, think about preparing a nice steak dinner for yourself. No problem, right? Now think about preparing that same dinner for 100 guests you’ve never met, or even 1,000. Simply buying the supplies becomes a huge challenge, but preparing, delivering, customizing and returning the meals completely changes the game. You’re likely to face some disappointed guests. With crowdfunding, those guests are all the equivalent of Yelpers — and their negative comments can snowball quickly.

Advice: put a serious spotlight on your supply chain

Not having a deep understanding of every single aspect that goes into your product and where you cansource it will have vast implications throughout the life of the product. The key? Knowing your BOM (bill of materials) inside and out.

Even a very simple consumer electronics product will likely have 50–100 different parts. If you’re going into production, you need to ask yourself: Where are those parts coming from? Are you getting them from more than one supplier? Do the suppliers charge different amounts for components, or have different minimum order quantities (MOQ)?

If one supplier has MOQ 10,000, for example, and you only need 5,000 circuit boards, you’ll be paying a premium for those components. Also: What are the implications for assembly if shipment for one out of the 50 components is late — does everything grind to a halt? Where will you store the unused inventory?

To address these challenges, you need to go beyond building a physical prototype and build a “supply chain prototype” — which is to say that you need to know your bill of materials inside and out, and become very familiar with where you cansource your components.

“We’ve managed to automate much of the prototyping and low-volume manufacturing process, even with traditional manufacturing techniques,” said Robert Bodor, vice president and general manager of Proto Labs. “This means startups now have a cost-effective way to produce their parts in quantities as low as 1 and as high as 100,000 when they’re ready to move into larger-scale production.”

Map out what your business is going to look like in three years if the venture is successful and you’re shipping 10,000 units around the world. What are the challenges that scale might introduce, and how will you meet them? If you have the answers to these questions, you’ll be way ahead of the game.

This opinion is my opinion. Hardware Startups may have many problems in crowdfunding, they should build good supply chain.

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